Airports

Getting ready to go to Morocco was really just me ignoring the fact that my flight date was rapidly arriving. People wanted to know what my “goals” were and how going to Morocco would help me on my “long-term career path”. I know that the right answer to those questions aren’t “I don’t know”, even if that’s the honest answer. I feel like a lot of people my age (myself included) have these vague, semi-true answers stock piled and ready for when adults ask these kinds of questions. Somehow, saying “I don’t know” just doesn’t feel like it’s good enough.

            Another question I got asked was “Are you excited for Morocco!?”, and I’d always  be really enthusiastic in my answer, but actually, I hadn’t even thought about Morocco very much. I was mentally stuck on the airport. I do not like airports, and I don’t even know why. I’m fine with flying; I love take off and I’m not afraid of the plane or anything. It’s the time actually in the airport that I find to be stressful. It doesn’t really help that I’ve been randomly selected and searched three separate times at three separate airports. Anyway, I didn’t know what to say to people. I just enjoyed my time with family and friends and packed my bags two hours before I left for my flight. I guess I shouldn’t recommend packing like that; I feel like it should have been more planned out, but it worked out pretty well for me. Some people call it procrastination, some people call it last minute inspiration. For me, it’s just panicking, but it’s oddly efficient.

            I think that starting out, I didn’t know that I had expectations. The exception being that I really thought the food in Morocco would be spicy. Turns out I was pretty wrong about that one. I also thought that I at least knew what I didn’t know. For example I knew that most types of “western” clothing were acceptable, but to stay on the safe side, I packed more conservative things. I also assumed that, since it’s Africa, it’d be pretty hot. I was half-right on that one. It’s currently the middle of November and today is going to be in the 70’s. However, temperatures drop at night and most houses don’t have heating, so it’s a good thing I brought sweat pants.

            All in all, I feel like it’s best to not think about anything too hard or expect too much, and then just roll with the punches.